Better than I was, more than I am
by Tenebrosi Angelus
Summary: Sirius Black has always been known around school as being a sort of ladies man, to put it nicely. But what they don't know is why he behaves that way. What the real question is though, will he ever change his ways or will he allow guilt to eat him alive? Please read and review to let me know if I'm any good. Woo a thousand views! :D Thank you lovelies, that makes me happy :')
1. Prologue

The door slammed shut behind him as he stormed out of his house around midday. Honestly, all Walburga Black ever seemed to do was scream at her oldest son for no apparent reason. Soon her logic behind it would be that he exhaled and got germs into the air. But frankly, Sirius had enough and it was still only the second week of summer. Most days he would just walk out of the house and go to a park or something to avoid shouting back at his mother. It would be a great day when Sirius Black could finally leave 12 Grimmauld Place and never have to return.

Normally Sirius would go to the park that was only a few blocks away from Grimmauld Place but his growing irritation was making him think that he should be as far away from that wretched place as possible. After thinking about it for a while Sirius started to head off toward a park on the other side of London. He had a little bit of muggle money for occasions like this so he decided to take the subway. Oh if only his mother could see him now, sitting in an underground train, with muggles, and using muggle money to get there. Yes, that would have simply filled her shriveled up little heart with warm fuzzy feelings of pride. Not.

This park was a good deal smaller than the one that he normally went to, and not as well kept, but at least there was only a few people here which was a good change from the always crowded with kids park he always went to. There was an old lady feeding the pigeons, a girl with a giant dog and roller blades, two little boys and another girl were tossing a ball around. Five people and one dog, that wasn't too bad, it was a nice change from the billion screaming kids that he was normally surrounded by.

Sitting down underneath a tree Sirius looked idly as the pigeons pecked at the little old lady's feet and as the girl with the dog said something to the one with who was probably her brothers or something, laughed, and rolled away. He found himself looking at the girl with rollerblades as she crouched down slightly to say something to her dog, rub it behind the ears, and stand up straight. Then, thinking she must be crazy, she allowed the dog to charge around the park as she held on to its leash and let it pull her around at top speed. It was just an accident waiting to happen but she was laughing hard both times that she and the dog sped past him.

Before she could pass by him the third time though the girl let go of the huge Great Dane's leash but kept rolling around, still laughing and barely having to do any work because of the amount of speed she had gotten from letting the dog tow her around. No sooner had the dog been released he charged toward Sirius and skidded to a halt next to him and thumped his tail against the grass and started sniffing at Sirius's face.

"Hey, man," said Sirius, giving the dog a sort of half nod like he was talking to a person. "How's your day going?" The dog licked his face and covered half of it with saliva.

"No Tibbles, leave him alone!" called the girl before coming to a halt in front of them.

"Tibbles?" Sirius asked incredulously, whipping off the dog drool and looking at _Tibbles_. Honestly this dog was probably part bear and that was his name? Even Sirius in animagus form wasn't much bigger than the Great Dane sitting next to him.

"Yeah the name wasn't my choice, my sisters named him," the girl laughed as the dog came back over to her side where it was half of her height on all fours. "Hey wasn't bothering you, was he?"

"No I'm a dog person," Sirius told the girl as he stood up, mentally patting himself on the back for his little pun. The dog barked happily as she rubbed it behind the ears.

"Well that's good," said the girl, nodding approvingly before grinning again and holding out her hand. "Hi I'm Nicka Benbow." Sirius looked Nicka over. Everything about her screamed "muggle" from her rollerblades to her dog to the way she talked. But she was very pretty, with dark brown hair and bangs, almond shaped green eyes with dark lashes, and a somewhat thin nose. Both of those reasons were why Sirius automatically took he hand and introduced himself.

* * *

In the days that followed Sirius found himself going to this park more and more often, regardless of the distance, just to see Nicka after she had said that she went there just about every day. He found himself learning a lot about her. Her parents were divorced and both were remarried but still on relatively good terms, she had an older sister and a younger sister who were only one year apart in age from her. She had a 20 year old step-brother who lived with them at her mom and step-father's house and a ten year old half-sister and three year old half-brother a her father's house. She was indeed a muggle. The girl that Sirius had seen on his first time going to this park was her best friend Lucy Whitaker. Nicka was the same age as Sirius. She thought his first name was sort of weird sounding but she had been laughing when she told him this. Whenever Sirius would have to return home after spending the day at the park with Nicka he found himself wanting to go back right away.

One day, about a week and a half after he first met her, and had been seeing her at the park every day since, Nicka made Sirius go on the swings with her.

"I feel stupid," he grumbled as he sat down on the swing and didn't bother pushing himself.

"Well then push me," she insisted, tossing her hair behind her shoulder. He rolled his eyes at her but did what she said.

"Come on, isn't this fun?" she asked, laughing as he pushed her high into the air. Sirius had come to the conclusion that he loved Nicka's laugh, it was kind of a girlish giggle and on most girls he found it incredibly annoying but with Nicka it was just cute and pretty contagious.

"Oh I guess, if you really think so," he laughed. He kept pushing her for a few more minutes, even after they had reached the point when the chains on the swing set wouldn't let Nicka go any higher. At last Sirius caught the chain of Nicka's swing to stop her from moving anymore, she was still laughing.

"See I told you it would be fun," she told him, making a little side to side movement with her head. Sirius chuckled slightly and shook his head. "You sure you don't want to have a go at it?"

"Pretty sure. It's cute when a girl goes on the swings but when a guy does it it's just awkward," he laughed.

"D'aww, you think I'm cute," she teased.

"Not what I said, but yes," he admitted. Nicka bit her lip and looked down, blushing slightly. Alright, that was it. Sirius still couldn't believe that he had spent just about all day, every day, for ten days and not made a move. It made no sense especially considering that Nicka, as he was starting to think, was basically the greatest girl in the world.

With these thoughts in mind he tilted his head down and met Nicka's lips with his own and placed his hand in her hair. There was a moment when Nicka hesitated to kiss him but she melted into it before he could think anything of it. He mentally did a double fist pump before focusing on kissing the girl he was with. A moments later Nicka pulled away, gasping slightly.

"You don't need to chew my face off, I'm right here," she murmured, pressing her forehead against his. "Just take it easy, okay? Oh… and there are kids here." Both of their eyes drifted over to a few kids going down the slide nearby before the both burst out laughing.

* * *

"SIRIUS BLACK!" Walburga screeched as soon as Sirius closed the front door one evening after returning from a date with Nicka where he had spent the day at her house. Sirius sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.

"Yes?" he called agitatedly. These people seemed to be bothering worse than usual as of late.

"COME HERE NOW!" his mother screamed again. Sighing once again Sirius made his way to the kitchen.

"No need to shout so loudly, the kitchen isn't ithat/i far away from the front door. What do you want?" he snapped. Both Orion and Walburga Black were rather pale faced and angry.

"What's this your brother says about a muggle," his father spat. Sirius raised an eyebrow at them like he had no idea what they were talking about and tried to remain calm.

"'Fraid you're going to be more specific than that. There's a lot of muggles in London." What he wasn't expecting was for his mother to slap him across the face.

"Don't be stupid, boy. The girl," she growled. Now his face was throbbing painfully, he was wondering how Regulus had somehow found out about Nicka, his temper was flaring up, and he was having a hard time thinking of a story to tell them.

"You are forbidden to see her," said Orion in a low voice. _Yeah_, Sirius thought sarcastically. _Okay, like _that's_ going to happen_. "What could possess you to go amongst filth like that?"

"Oh, so it's my fault I fell in love, isn't it?" Sirius yelled, the rage that he had so far managed to suppress starting to flare up.

"You're a disgrace to the Black name," said Orion in the same low, threatening voice. Yeah, like he didn't already know that.

"Go to your room," snapped his mother.

"But-"

"GO TO YOUR ROOM!" Angrily Sirius stood up, taking care to slam the chair on the ground and break a few valuables on his way back upstairs. He would need to have a chat with little brother Regulus.

* * *

The night he had argued with his parents about Nicka was the night Sirius finally decided that he had had enough of them and packed up his things and fled to the Potters' house. Now, two mornings after he had left 12 Grimmauld Place for what he decided was the last time Mr. Potter was frowning at the morning's Daily Prophet as James and Sirius trampled down the stairs. Mrs. Potter served the boys and her husband breakfast but stopped to look at the paper of Mr. Potter's shoulder.

"They're getting bolder," James's father said darkly.

"That's such a pity," said Mrs. Potter sadly, going to put a few more dishes away before sitting down with breakfast herself.

"What is?" asked James in confusion.

"A muggle girl dropped dead in London. She was home alone, there were signs of a break in, but the muggles couldn't find any reason for her death. Which means it was a killing curse," explained Mr. Potter. James held out his hand for the Prophet which his father handed to him.

Sirius looked over his best friend's shoulder to view the front page only to get a horrible sensation in the pit of his stomach as he looked at the all too familiar face on the front page of the photo as a girl laughed happily at him. _Veronica Rose Benbow, 16, was found dead in her mother and step-father's home in London, England early this morning…._ Sirius didn't want to read anymore for he felt that the more of the story he read the more difficult it would be for him to push it off as a mistake of some sorts. No, it wasn't possible.

"Mate, are you okay?" James asked, somewhat concerned as he looked at Sirius. No sound had escaped his lips at the sight of Nicka's picture on the front page but he had felt some of the blood drain out of his face.

"I met her a couple of times," he said coolly. "Nice girl. Didn't deserve to die."


	2. Ella Trengove

A year. It had been just over that amount of time since the morning that Sirius had found out about the death of the girl that he tried, unsuccessfully, to push out of his mind. More than a year since he'd seen her beautiful face smiling up at him, heard her laugh at something for no reason, or felt the warmth of her body as he held her in his arms. Even her kisses were lost beneath so many other ones that he had exchanged with just about any girl he found to be even remotely attractive. But still Sirius could not shake the burning feelings of anger, guilt, sadness, and denial that were all mixed together and buried deep inside of him and would occasionally threaten to surface.

Sirius's sixth year hadn't exactly been the bright spot of his Hogwarts career, but it had its upsides too. He hadn't had to go back to his parents' house and had seen very little of Regulus and the Potters were great like always. He sort of, erm, accidentally almost got Snivellus Snape killed although he refused to admit to whether or not he regretted it. Once a month he, James, and Peter would sneak out in animal form to help Mooney with his "furry little problem" and they started compiling a map of all the secret passageways and classrooms for the future miscreants of Hogwarts. Grade wise he was alright but he could have been brilliant if he actually _cared _about it.

And then came the womanizing. Sirius never had the best reputation when it came to girls. Maybe it was the fact that he never really had to do any work to get a girl to like him which made it easy to just move on easily from one girl to the next. But to start off sixth year Sirius had snogged two girls on the Hogwarts Express which set the tune for the entire year. The few the girls that were reluctant towards his advances were fairly easy to win over with his "natural charm and charisma" or whatever it was that people called it. Sirius almost wanted to blame her for doing this to him but of course he would immediately feel bad for thinking like that. With every new pair of lips he kissed Sirius found himself wondering what the situation would have been if she hadn't… well you know.

But now it was the second Friday of seventh year and so far not much had changed. They were still always running late in the mornings, it still seemed like Sirius had snogged with half the girls in school, James was still chasing Lily, and Sirius already had gotten detention. The biggest difference was that James was now Head Boy, much to everyone's surprise. In all fairness James had sort of matured during sixth year, and they stopped just hexing people in the halls at random but still, who in their right mind would give _James Potter_ the top student job for making sure other students behaved?

But right now James didn't seem to be very responsible as he practically dragged Sirius to Transfiguration, throwing profanities as he complained about Sirius not waking him up on time when it had _clearly_ been established the night before that it was James's turn to make sure they all woke up.

"Oh will you calm down?" huffed Sirius, keeping up easily with James. "I'm sure Mooney is keeping Minnie distracted for us. Besides, she loves me. I'm sure we'll be able to just walk in there without any trouble." James glared at Sirius before suddenly making a face like he had just remembered something.

"Uh, I think we forgot Wormt-" he began to say.

"No time now. We already missed breakfast and were you or were you not just ranting about how late we are and that we couldn't get distracted by anything?"

"… Valid point," laughed James before they finally stopped in front of the large double doors to go into the Transfiguration classroom. Turning to each other and nodding slightly the two dark haired boys through open the doors and walked casually into the class, three minutes late, and took a seat by their good buddy Remus Lupin.

Too bad that luck didn't really seem to be on their side today.

"Potter, Black. Detention," said Professor McGonagall, turning around from where she had been writing instructions on the board and going back to the lesson, completely ignoring James and Sirius's protests. Remus was giving the other two boys I told you so looks in which Sirius responded by telling Remus to stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

The class remained uninterrupted for the next few minutes as the seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins took notes that were slight review from the year before, most students not daring to even whisper amongst themselves. Suddenly the heavy oak doors opened again to reveal two more fashionably late students, two girls who were fellow seventh year lions, that strode up to the front of the room, said a few things quietly to Professor McGonagall, attempted to show her a note that she wouldn't even look at before heading back to take their seats, smiling as soon as their backs were facing the teacher.

"See I told you we wouldn't even need that note. Way to make us another three minutes late," the petite brunette, Ella Trengove, whispered to the other girl as they passed by the table where three of the four Marauders were sitting

"You can't rush perfection, okay? And it's better safe than sorry," the taller girl, Mara Cascreasa, whispered back before they took their seats two rows behind Sirius, Remus, and James's table and next to Mary MacDonald, yet another 7th year Gryffindor who Sirius was quite sure Remus had the hots for.

Once Professor McGonagall had set the class to practice Sirius looked back at the few girls behind him. Ella Trengove, even though she was a seventh year too, was a pretty little girl, as in she probably couldn't be more than a hundred pounds and probably like… what 5'2" or 5'3"? Not like he was an expert in measurements or anything. She was pretty though, with thick dark brown hair, eyes that he was pretty sure were green, arched eyebrows, a slightly upturned nose resembling a ski slope, and in general just delicate looking features. Her friend Mara was cute too, probably a couple inches taller and a few pounds heavier and with darker hair and eyes and a more olive complexion but right now Sirius's focus was drifting more towards Ella.

The two girls were talking as they worked on turning a toad to stone, trying to stifle laughs every now and again to avoid being reprimanded by the teacher. Sirius took slight note that whenever tried to hide her laughing she bit down on her thumb slightly and looked with her eyes while her head tilted down more as she tried to conceal a large grin.

"Oi, Prongs," said Sirius, elbowing James in the ribs. "What do you think of Trengrove? I'm thinking of making her a new addition to my _To Do _list," he joked, wriggling his eyebrows at James as Remus shot them both dirty looks over his statue-fied crow. "Oh stop it, Mooney," Sirius sighed in exasperation. "I know you'd have her on your to do list too if you weren't such a goodie two shoes." Once again Remus gave him a disapproving look.

"Eh, I guess she's pretty cute," shrugged James before turning on his toad with his wand. "_Duro!"_ Maybe James was exactly the best person to ask on opinions of a girl, he was too biased toward Lily Evans, but him saying anything about her at all was a good sign.

Turning, Sirius attempted to catch the brunette girl's attention. First, by throwing near invisible items in her direction, which didn't do anything except agitate James seeing how he had the total of nearly forty two pieces of parchment in his hair. Then, he attempted to get Remus to pass her a note, which ended up in his friend tearing the note apart and shooting him another chastising glare. Finally, he tried the good old cough shout.

"Ahe-Trengrove-ahem!"" He coughed. Unfortunately, Sirius caught the attention of nearly seventy percent of the class. The other thirty percent were deliberately ignoring him and trying to pay attention. "Whoops! Sorry! Got a wee bit of a cold, I'm afraid." Well at least it succeeded in catching the girl's attention.

"It's Tren_gove_ not Tren_grove_," she informed him in a hushed voice. _I don't care_, Sirius thought, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Anyways, what do you want?"

Sirius was momentarily distracted by the ugly look that the other girl, Mara, was giving him. Whoa, what was her problem? Sirius was pretty sure he'd never gone out with Mara Cascreasa, so what was her deal? Shaking these thoughts out of his heads he turned his attention back to the girl who was addressing him.

"Party," he whispered. "First Hogsmede trip of the year. You in?"

"I've got a boyfriend," she whispered back which made Fletcher Breckenridge, a brown haired Slytherin seventh year who Sirius really couldn't stand, sit up a little straighter and glare at Sirius.

First of all, what kind of Gryffindor dated a Slytherin? Especially since Breckenridge was a jerk and had almost as bad of a reputation as Sirius. But truth be told the fact that Ella Trengove had a boyfriend was almost as useless as him knowing if she had a pet since what he intended to do with her wasn't long term at all. _Maybe I'll just stick with a good snog and leave it at that_, Sirius thought, grinning slightly to himself for a split second before turning back to the girl he was speaking to.

"Oh he can come too if he really wants," Sirius said back, trying to avoid the daggers both Remus and Mara were shooting him. Ella rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"We'll see," she said before turning the toad in front of her to stone.


	3. Does he even know what love is?

Ella Trengove wasn't a morning person, at all. But of course her best friend Mara was which was annoying at times. Like today when instead of waking her up like a normal person Mara had decided that it was appropriate to leap onto Ella's bed and just jump violently and scream at her to wake up. Lily, Mary, and Alice found it amusing but Ella did not. And so began the long, painful morning that resulted in them both being late to class.

Mara always took forever in the mornings to get dressed since she was horribly absent-minded and could never find her things. One summer growing up Mara had accidentally put her shoes in the refrigerator and searched for them for three hours before Mrs. Cascreasa went to go make lunch. Mara was basically the only friend Ella had growing up since she was the only one her parents approved of because she was a rich, well-mannered (when adults were around), and because Mara's parents were the only other magical family in Ripon, England and their father worked together _and _they were purebloods.

Honestly Ella couldn't care less about being a pureblood. Who cared anyways? Blood was blood, it's red and it goes through your veins. Everybody has it. Who cares about whether or not you came from a long line of witches and wizards? They were all human beings, weren't they? But she had to say how lucky she was that Mr. and Mrs. Cascreasa didn't raise Mara to the same standards, although Mara' two much older brothers had taken to those beliefs. Yup, she gotten lucky that the only friend her parents approved of was the best in the world. The Cascreasa's manor had become a safe house of sorts, although Ross and Daniel were sort of antagonizing and made Mara cry a lot. Get real people, Ross was 14 years older and Daniel was 12 years older and they still treated their little sister Mara like they were all 4 years old. It was such a pity that Mr. and Mrs. Cascreasa had both passed away last year, being rather old and having had Mara late in life.

Ella mulled these thoughts over through the sleepy haze that was fogging up her brain, unaware that Mara was trying to have a conversation with her. It wasn't until the end of breakfast that Ella actually showed signs of life but it was too little too late since by then the bell for class to start had just rang.

Now, Mara had her flaws but there were a few things she was very good at and they were mimicking voices, forging notes, and going into ninja stalker mode. The second skill was one that came in handy for just situations like this. Although it didn't help that for these sort of things Mara suddenly developed extreme OCD.

"Can't you write any faster? We're already late as it," Ella complained, resisting the urge to shake her best friend's arm. Mara had been working on that note for two minutes now. At this point Ella was just about ready to accept detention if their excuse for being late didn't work. They were always late a few times, even more so within the first couple of weeks of the school year.

"Don't rush Mama," Mara snapped, leaning in closer to the piece of parchment. "Maybe if someone didn't take so long to wake up I wouldn't have to be forging a note, now would I?" With one last glance over the paper Mara held up the note, written in a near perfect imitation of Madam Pomfrey's writing, blew the ink dry, folded it in half and stuck it in the pocket of her robes. "Alright, let's go." Ella glared at her friend accusingly and held her hand out for the note, knowing that in Mara's care it would be lost. Sighing reluctantly Mara gave the note to Ella.

Clapping happily before grabbing her best friends arm, the two girls took off down the halls. A few other students on free period gave them odd looks but it was fairly normal behavior for Mara and Ella (Marlla to those too lazy to say the whole thing). Finally they stopped in front of the large doors to the Transfiguartion classrooms, smoothed their clothes and hair so they didn't look too much like they were rushing, and pushed them open before calmly making their way toward the front of the class.

"Professor we're so sorry we're late but there's a completely logical explanation," said Ella innocently. "Lady troubles. You know how that is right? Had to go to Madam Pomfrey's and everything. Not pleasant." They shuddered at the same time.

In the end they didn't even need the note, much to Mara's annoyance, but still as soon as they turned their backs to Professor McGonagall they smirked victoriously and took their seats toward the back of the classroom. "See I told you we wouldn't even need that note. Way to make us another three minutes late," Ella whispered, twisting a lock of brown hair around her finger.

"You can't rush perfection, okay? And it's better safe than sorry," Mara responded as they sat down next to Mary.

Turning objects to stone. Blah, they did that last year! And besides, Ella was pretty good at Transfiguration, it was probably a tie for second with Defense Against the Dark Arts and after Potions. But of course Mara probably going to get them in detention because of how she made a joke about how doing this spell made her feel like Medusa and then proceeded to make a weird face at her crow while she cast the spell so that it was like her eyes had turned the bird to stone. Now Ella couldn't stop laughing... or at least restraining herself from laughing.

Ella couldn't say that she wasn't surprised when she heard someone cough shout her names, a someone by the name of Sirius Black. Oh great, this couldn't be good. Mr. Player never seemed to talk to a girl unless it was to flirt with her or something. And of course Ella's boyfriend Fletcher knew this too since he seemed to tense up and start glaring at Sirius. Ella quickly leaned closer to where he was sitting at the table next to her's.

"It's okay, I can do this," she whispered to him soothingly before looking up to correct Sirius on how her last name was pronounced. After all, it wasn't like they had been in the same house and year or had every single class together since first year together. Nooooo not at _all_. But of course her suspicions that he was trying to hit on her were verified when he asked her to a party at Hogsmede. While she had to admit that every party James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew was epic they never seemed to end well. People always got drunk or wound up sleeping together or both. And, as she clearly told him, she had a boyfriend that she was quite sure she was in love with and didn't need any of that stuff happening to her. After all, _how_ many girls did she know personally who had been dragged through the mud and left for dead by Sirius Black? A lot. Yeah, pass. She didn't need to go fooling around with a guy who was incapable of feeling any sort of real or deep emotional feelings for a girl. It was like… does he even know what love is? Ella doubted it.


	4. The smartest girl plays dumb

After Sirius had asked her to the party the rest of class had gone by pretty uneventful for Ella. They practiced turning things to stone for a bit longer, took some new notes. The only thing close to exciting was when Mara got detention for having gum and James Potter turned around and proclaimed her to be his and Sirius's new detention buddy which made Mara moan in dismay and slam her head against the desk with an audible _thunk_. Ella felt bad for her friend but couldn't help but find it funny since Mara had the biggest crush that bordered on a stalkerish obsession with James Potter in fifth year. And now two years later and Mara was completely over it and now Lily Evans of all people was starting to pay attention to James? What was the world coming to?

As soon as class was dismissed Fletcher walked over to where Ella, Mara, and Mary's table. At the sight of the tall Slytherin Mary, who seemed to get increasingly nervous around Slytherins these days, quickly said goodbye and darted out the door and Mara grumbled something under her breath about how she was going to go and get dumped by Jasper Alarcon, the guy she'd been going out with for the past week. It was sad that Mara had gotten to the point where she wasn't even fazed by break ups anymore, they were so frequent and often that she had just gotten used to it by now.

"Who does he think he is?" Fletcher asked crossly as Ella struggled to shove her books into her bag.

"Unless he's going through an identity crisis or has amnesia or something, he probably thinks he's Sirius Black. Hold these," she told her boyfriend simply, handing him a couple of her textbooks.

"So?" he growled, taking her books.

"Oh all he needs is just a good ego check," sighed Ella, tucking a tendril of chocolaty hair behind her ear and taking her books back after managing to put the ones she had been struggling with into her book bag. "I mean, he's probably not that bad. In the common room he just sort of hangs out with his friends, they're pretty funny. He's just really full of himself and automatically assumes that every girl in school wants to bear his children because he's good looking."

"I don't think he's _that_ good looking," complained Fletcher. "I mean, _I'm_ better than him, aren't I?" Ella stood up straight, having at last won the battle against her textbooks, and smoothed out her skirt. If she had known he was joking should would have laughed, but it wasn't hard to tell that he was being serious.

"Oh calm down, I don't like him," she told him, rolling her eyes. "And yeah, sure, you're pretty."

Spencer sighed, clearly not satisfied with the end results of the conversation.

"Yeah, well I've got Charms," he told his girlfriend, kissing Ella quickly before picking his things up. "I'll talk to you later." Ella smiled slightly and nodded and watched him walk out the door but her smile had turned into a frown as soon as his back had turned to her. _Jealousy isn't a good look on him_, she thought before heading out the door to go to Defense Against the Dark Arts.

* * *

Ella sat at the Gryffindor table at lunch, sucking on the end of a sugar quill while she waited for Mara. Whenever one of them showed up to a meal early and started eating without the other they always ended up yelling at each other, jokingly but still it was just easier to avoid conflict. Mm…sugar.

"Where were you, I'm starving," complained Ella as soon as Mara sat down"

"I have free period. I was running around the school like an idiot. Duh," Mara said with an eye roll before grabbing a sandwich. It was such a pity that Mara had dropped Herbology, Ella missed her in that class. But at least she still had Lily Evans. "Oh yeah," Mara said suddenly. "Did I tell you about how I saw Black and Garry Brown arguing in the hallway?"

"Oh my God!" said Ella, sitting up straighter and holding her hands out to stop her best friend from talking. Mara raised an eyebrow. "I just realized... _both_ of their last names are colors!"

"My mother's maiden name was White."

"It's like a colored rainbow of friendship!" said Ella, clapping her hands happily before staring at her sugar quill, deciding she'd had enough, and putting it back away. "Even though we don't like Brown. So why were they fighting?"

"It is! And I guess Black snogged with Brandie Sinclair even though she and Garry are still technically dating," Mara explained.

"That sixth year girl he cheated on you with?" Ella asked. "Ha, I told him she was a slut." Mara laughed and nodded in agreement.

The two girls spent the next couple of minutes just talking about what had happened in the hour they hadn't been together, laughing every once in a while whenever one said something funny or did something stupid. Suddenly Mara stopped and narrowed her eyes.

"Bleh, look who's coming," she complained. Ella turned around to see Sirius coming over from his end of the table. "Want me to get rid of him?"

"No, trust me, I've got this under control," said Ella. Why did everyone think she couldn't handle this guy herself? Yeah, Ella played dumb a lot, but she was pretty clever when she chose to show it and part of her cleverness was the fact that she acted dumb to throw people off and enjoy the looks on their faces when she said something smart after they were convinced that she was genuinely stupid.

The two girls resumed their previous activities and acted like they hadn't noticed anything until they heard Sirius call out her last name. And he even got it right this time. Unfortunately he also got the attention of half the people in the Great Hall, half of which were jealous looking girls and the rest of the people were divided between those who looked amused and those who looked irritated. Thankfully Fletcher didn't appear to be in the Great Hall.

Rather than rotate her body around to look at him, Ella vouched for tilting her head backwards so that he appeared upside down in her eyes.

"Hello Sirius," she said pleasantly. Mara gave her a "What the hell are you doing" look as Sirius squeezed himself between Ella and a small second year boy that he quickly apologized to after he accidentally elbowed the kid in the side of the head.

"So it seems like we never really got a chance to talk much in class," the dark haired boy stated, running his hands through his hair as he spoke. "But anyways, this is a chance of a lifetime we're talking about here. Me. You. Together. At a party."

"Well we're talking now," Ella told him, pointing out the obvious.

"Chance of a lifetime?" snorted Mara. "That's like the chance of every five minutes for any girl isn't it?"

"Notice that I've never asked you out?" said Sirius coldly. _Buuuuuuuurn_, Ella thought, looking at the offended look on her best friend's face.

"Yeah, well why- hey!" Mara began, cutting herself off as Ella wrenched the fork from her hands and threw it halfway across the Great Hall. Sirius's head whipped around to watch the spoon fly through the air.

"Mara, I think you dropped your spoon. Better go get," said Ella casually.

"It was a _fork_, genius," sighed Mara, beginning to stand up.

"Yeah, whatever. Fetch!" said Ella. Mara walked away, heading towards a group of very confused Ravenclaws, grumbling "I am not a dog" underneath her breath. At the word fetch Ella had noticed Sirius flinch and begin to stand up.

"No not you!" she laughed, pulling him back down.

"Yeah so anyways what I was trying to say was-" Sirius began to say before the brunette girl snapped her head over to where Lily and James were talking.

"Sssssh, shut up for a second, I love this show," she said, holding out her finger to tell Sirius to be quiet even though he wasn't talking and staring intently at James and Lily like she was trying to read their lips or something. She didn't have lip reading down to a perfect science or anything but she was good enough to get the just of it. Basically James had asked out Lily again and instead of shooting him down she gave him either what was a reluctant no, or a cautious yes. It was hard to tell.

"Aw, that's cute," Ella crooned, resting her face on her palm as she continued to watch. "Just... kind of disappointing. I rather enjoy watching her shoot him down. But I'm kind of on the fence about what to think about it. Like I kind of want her to actually say yes because honestly it's just sad and she should just give the poor guy a chance. And then again it's like... does that boy know the meaning of the word no?" Ella shook her head sadly, gave once more glance at James and Lily and then back again to Sirius. "So what were you saying?" she asked blankly even though she knew exactly what he had been talking about before.

"Uh…." Sirius said, looking back and forth between James and Lily and Ella, his facial expression making it clear that he had no idea what just happened or how to respond. Mission accomplished.


	5. Operation TMUALLAIATGHIDSL

Uh, what just happened? One moment Sirius was going to try asking out Trengove again, the next she was going on about Prongs and Lily Evans and her opinions on that whole situation and just… what? Now Sirius wasn't sure if Ella had ADHD or just genuinely stupid and ditzy. Not like it mattered really, hot and dumb wasn't something that Sirius ever complained about. But Ella Trengove was just… confusing, he supposed.

"Yeah, I was going to say that I think you're-" Sirius began before being cut off by a girl's voice that was going to start getting annoying very soon if she kept interrupting him.

"I got the fork!" Mara Cascreasa announced, plopping back down in the seat she had been sitting in before Trengove had chucked the culinary utensil across the Great Hall. While Sirius had to admit that _was_ a pretty good throw, her word choices had gotten him worried for a second that she knew about the _other_ side of him. And of course the fact that the word fetch made him automatically want to go chasing after a stick or something didn't help much. But no, it had to be just some sort of coincidence.

"Now that wasn't so difficult, now was it?" Ella asked her friend in a sort of baby voice that made him think of his psychotic cousin Bellatrix.

"Kind of, Evey Hull didn't want to give it back to me, said that if it almost impaled her eye that she had the right to keep it, but Jackie made her hand it over," sighed the dark haired girl.

"Aw," Ella said sympathetically, somehow managing to laugh and sound genuine at the same time. She turned back towards Sirius who was getting irritated very fast. "So you think I'm what?" Rage quit time.

"Oh, nothing," huffed Sirius, standing up. "I'll talk to you later when people aren't there to interrupt." With that Sirius stood up and walked back to his end of the table where James and Sirius were watching with amusement and Peter was looking at him like he was hoping that he would manage to pick up any good pointers. The two girls had both said something once his back was turned but they were talking at the same time and the din from everyone else in Great Hall drowned them out and Sirius was _not_ going to look back now.

As soon as Sirius sat down James looked at him, grinning from ear to ear.

"So, uh, how did that go for you?" he asked, clearly trying to not laugh.

"I'm working on it, okay?" Sirius snapped. "Nosy best friends don't make the situation any better. Anyways why are you so happy?"

"Oh you know, just at the fact that after years of hoping and praying that some girl would actually completely blow you off my dreams have finally come true. Sweet, sweet victory." Sirius looked at Remus, not believing James's excuse.

"Lily said yes to him asking her out. _Barely_," Remus told him, rolling his eyes at James as he continued to smile like an idiot.

"Well that's great! Does this mean we can actually sleep this year instead of listening to you carp about how she won't give you the time of day?" Sirius asked enthusiastically, only to receive some more happy grinning. If he was going to act like this all the time Sirius would have to gouge out his eyes and make himself go deaf as well.

* * *

The first class after lunch was double potions with the Slytherins, as always. But of course Peter had dropped that class after OWLs, and Remus was partnered up with a sullen looking Slytherin girl named Lysandra Williamson, so with James as his partner potions was a fairly bearable class. Sure Slughorn always raved about how wonderful Snivellus was and it was quite obvious that Evans was pretty much his favorite student, but at least Sirius and James could sit in the back and talk without getting into much trouble. Sure he felt bad for Mooney being stuck with that Slytherin girl, because honestly she was kind of intimidating even to someone like Sirius, but well at least he sat with them for pretty much every other class.

But today it seemed that because she's said yes to going out with him, James and Lily were now potions partners, leaving Sirius to find his own partner. Wait a minute… he was now starting to remember who Lily's potions partner had been previously.

"Hey Trengove," Sirius said, walking up to where the girl he had been trying to speak to at lunch and in Transfiguration was currently sitting alone and boredly twisting a lock of hair around her index finger.

"Hey Black," she said, giving him a slight smile before continuing to look fascinated by the piece of hair.

"No best friend?" he asked.

"No, Mara's really bad at potions."

"No boyfriend?"

"He doesn't think they're worthwhile."

"No Evans?"

"No, she ditched me, that bitch," she grumbled, glaring slightly at where Lily and James were setting up a cauldron.

"So now partner?"

"No partner."

"Well you've got one now," said Sirius, grinning toothily as he took the place next to her.

Ella smiled slightly but looked away from him and didn't say anything but he could have sworn he saw her cheek remain raised for a second before Professor Slughorn came in, his stomach coming into view first and then the rest of his body a few moments later. Professor Slughorn seemed to be another teacher who felt it was necessary to spend the first couple of weeks reviewing what they learned last year rather than try anything new. Today's assignment, for example, was to make the Draught of Living Death. Sirius let out a slight groan, remembering what a disaster it had been last year when he and James had attempted it last time.

"Oh _God_ that's so _easy_," Ella complained under her breath. Sirius looked at her sort of incredulously.

"What?" she whispered. "It's just wormwood, asphodel, valerian roots, Sloth brain, and juice from a sophorous bean. Sure you have to stir it the right way or whatever but that's about it, isn't it?" Was this the same girl he had been talking to at lunch? Did she have a twin or something (because if so that'd be something he would be interested in), but this couldn't be that ditzy girl he had been talking to before, right?

"Be a dear and get the things we need from the supplies closet, would you?" Ella asked sweetly, interrupting Sirius's train of thought.

"Oh yeah, sure," said Sirius quickly, still a bit confused about the girl sitting next to him. He returned a few moments letter with the necessary ingredients which made her clap happily and thank him.

"You ever wonder if sloth's have brain damage from spending so much time upside down?" Sirius asked which made the girl laugh.

"Oh who knows, I always though sloths were weird. What with their floppy arms and long cards and freakishly round skills," she laughed. "It's just like… what kind of evil wizard _made_ you?"

"Now, this isn't going to blow up in my face or anything is it?" Sirius asked, turning toward her suddenly with a grave expression. She laughed again.

"No I promise. Just listen to me and your face should remain in tact."

FIVE MINUTES LATER

It was hard to see through all the smoke, or breath in the fowl smelling fumes that were emitting from Ella and Sirius's cauldron.

"You lied to me," complained Sirius, sounding hurt.

"I'm sorry, but you were the one who didn't even put in any sophorous bean juice and then turned up the heat," said Ella, pouting at the smoking cauldron before coughing and trying to wave off the fumes."

"You still lied to me."

"I know," she sighed. "I'm sorry. I'll make it up later. Oh, and your eyebrows are singed off." _I'll make it up later_, she said. Yes! Operation Totally Mess Up And Look Like An Idiot And Then Guilt Her Into Doing Something Later was a success. The eyebrows he had to admit were not supposed to be part of the plan and he didn't mean to completely mess up the potion but it sounded better if he just went along with it.


	6. The psycho best friend

But apparently Professor Slughorn didn't view the failure as a success the same way that Sirius did. As a matter of fact he was rather upset and deducted ten points from Gryffindor. Ella was slightly disappointed by it but when Sirius asked if she was mad she just responded with a breezy "Oh it's fine, everyone makes mistakes" and then turned away from him like she was distracted by something on the other side of the room.

"Well can you do me a favor?" Sirius asked after a few minutes of awkward silence in which she stared at the wall and neither of them had anything to do since Slughorn told them that they could just make up the assignment with an essay homework and neither of them were starting at the moment.

"Hmm?" she asked dreamily, turning back to look at him.

"Would you mind growing back my eyebrows?" he laughed. Ella raised one of her own eyebrows at him in amusement; hers had managed to stay intact.

"Sure," she sighed, shaking her head before digging around in the pocket of her robes, pulling out her wand, and tapping the place where Sirius's eyebrows used to be as she muttered a spell.

Rubbing his newly regrown eyebrows Sirius thanked Ella as she started to stare at her hands. Okay, the three sides of Ella Trengove that he had figured out so far: the ditzy one, the kind of nerdy version, and the one that was suddenly spacing out and depressed. And he'd been around her for today for like what, a whole hour? And she still had remained unsnogged? The apocalypse was coming for sure this time, he just knew it.

After a while Sirius just contented himself to glaring at James and Lily as they seemed to be have a jolly good time make a potion that could kill someone. Him having to find a new partner better not be a hint toward something like him James just forgetting about him… and Remus and Peter.

"So!" said Ella, sitting up straight suddenly and hitting the desk with her hands, crashing Sirius's train of depressing thoughts. "Did you really get into an argument with Garry Brown?" _That_ was what she wanted to talk about? Pity, Sirius had half been expecting some awkward conversation about the weather.

"Yeah, he was paranoid about his girlfriend," Sirius said, running his hands through his dark hair.

"Well _did_ you make out with Brandie?" the brunette probed. Oh so that was her name! And there he was thinking it was Brittney. Oh well, not like it mattered all that much, he was done with her anyways, like he had told Brown. However, telling that to Trengove probably wouldn't get him anywhere which is why he made a point of remaining silence. Ella sighed in disappointment. "Oh. Because I was trying to tell Mara that I didn't think that you had. I'll have to assume the worst now." Well damn, that backfired.

Sirius couldn't really say that the rest of the class went much better. There were long uncomfortable silences that were occasionally broken by an awkward question every now and then. But on the bright side the majority of Sirius's answers made her laugh. But what the real question was if she was only laughing because she thought he was stupid by the way he deflected all of her questions in such a way that he sounded like he had no idea what it was that she was trying to ask him. But considering the questions were about his romantic history and the fact that Sirius's wasn't really a very good one, most people would probably do the same thing…right?

"So have you ever had a girlfriend?" she asked, her eyes darting over to Lily and James and their ever so successful potion making skills.

"Lots," shrugged Sirius. What kind of question was that?

"Let me rephrase the question. Have you ever had just one girlfriend that you were committed to an in love with?"

"One," sighed Sirius, not feeling like going into the subject or making up an excuse not to answer.

"Really?" Ella asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yes really," grumbled Sirius.

"Well what happened to her."

"Dead, can we change the subject?" he snapped. Her face flashed between a sympathetic look to being taken aback to the bright eyes look she had been wearing previously, all within the space of one second

"Do you like pickles?"

"They're alright."

"Yech, I can't stand pickles. They all just need to jump into a pool of gasoline and light themselves on fire.

* * *

The last few classes of the day had gone by rather uneventfully. James continued to be a smiling idiot, Sirius didn't think he made any real progress at all with Ella, Remus just sat around reading, and Peter was as enthusiastic to agree with anything James and Sirius said as ever. It had been a fairly dull and rather disappointing Friday. And too make things better, he had detention tonight. But James would be there at least… as well as Ella's nosy and annoying best friend who didn't seem to like him at all. But that was okay because he wasn't like her that much either.

When James and Sirius arrived in Professor McGonagall's room after dinner for detention Mara was already there, looking rater sullen as she sat back in her seat with her arms crossed.

"Hey new detention buddy," James teases as he and Sirius sat down in front of the glaring girl.

"Oh shut up," she snapped.

"Nice kitty," Sirius chuckled as James put his hands up in surrender. Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw Mara throw a quill to the front of the room.

"Potter you dropped your quill," she said rather tensely.

"I don't have one," James said confusedly. "So how'd I-?"

"Oh just go and pick it up!" Mara snapped. Shrinking back from the rather angry girl James walked to the front of the room to retrieve his quill.

Meanwhile Sirius was having his own problems as he suddenly was having difficulty breathing.

"I would greatly appreciate it if you would not kill me right now," Sirius said, looking back at Mara who seemed to be trying to strangle him with his tie.

"Not now I need to talk," she hissed.

"Well do it quickly, breathing is an important part of living."

"Look, I don't care about you, I don't care about your friends, I don't care about care about all the girl's that you've used. What I _do_ care about is Ella. She's got a boyfriend and if you're an idiot and manage to break them up I will hunt you down like a dog and kill you while you sleep. So let's make a little agreement here, okay? You give me any reason to think that your intentions toward Ella _aren't_ honorable and I'll unpack the shovel I bought this summer. That sound good to you?" Well no not really, it seemed like the odds were not in his favor but seeing as how it was getting hard to breathe and think he wasn't in much of a position to argue.

"Fine fine, deal. Just let _go_."

"Okay, well in that case just remember one thing: I'm _everywhere_. You can't hide things from me," Mara said, in a much more cheery tone as she let go of Sirius's tie and sat back in her seat again.

And here Sirius was thinking _Peter_ was clingy.


	7. I play to win

Note to self: viscously murder Lily Evans with a rusty sponge and a graham cracker at the soonest possible moment. Ella should have known that partnering up with Sirius would have ended with a combustion, after all when was the last time she had ever seen him pay attention in class in the six full years they had been in school together? But honestly, it was just a review potion and as long as you followed the instructions it was fairly easy to do. But no. She ended up with a melted heap of metal, a scorched desk, and the smell of burning eyebrows assaulting her nostrils. And of course since she was Ella Trengove what did she have to do? Smile and pretend like it was no big deal. That was what Ella did and what Ella always expected her to do. No need to care about what she actually felt on the _inside_, just pay attention to the perfect façade that she had. Just care about the perfectly happy mask that she always wore that almost never betrayed any real feelings. Just happy, happy, happy all the time! And why couldn't he just grow back his _own_ damn eyebrows?!

That's what Ella had been thinking about for a large part of Potions class. That class session definitely wasn't going to go on the top 10 list of best class periods. Pity too since Potions was usually Ella's favorite class. But at last she couldn't stand the awkward silence. And what was better than awkward silence? Awkward questions… well not very awkward to her but she could definitely tell how uncomfortable Sirius was getting with the situation. And of course the fact that he avoided most of the questions, things like who was the last girl he dated and when was his first kiss, basically proved every suspicion that she had about him.

But one thing Ella had to admit was that she was genuinely shocked when he said that he had actually been in love once. At first she thought he was lying but at one quick glance over at him it was plain to her that Sirius was telling the truth it was just… something in his eyes she supposed. But when he said that she died a quiet sympathetic whimper escaped her lips, of course her normal happy mask was back as soon as he snapped at her but she couldn't help but wonder who she was or what happened. But no, she'd pry some other time. And with that thought she moved on to grilling him over meaningless subjects.

After class was over Fletcher was waiting by the door for her. Well that was a first. And then of course the realization donned on her.

"You're being a jealous git, you know that right?" she sighed. Fletcher looked the opposite direction before putting his arm around her shoulder. "Oh come on, don't you trust me?" Ella asked innocently, looking up at him with big green eyes.

"Oh I trust _you_, it's just him I don't trust," Fletcher grumbled, steering them through the hall.

"Do you even know what my next class is because we're going the wrong way? We have to go to that Hogsmeade party on Halloween though," she told him.

"What? Why!" Fletcher protested.

"A little bit of confidence we be wonderful, thank you," Ella sighed in irritation. Fletcher grumbled a bit under his breath but didn't say anything else on the subject which meant that he was grudgingly agreeing. That was the thing with Fletcher, he was cute but so overly protective and full of himself. Now if only her parents didn't like him so much then Ella could easily get over those two things.

* * *

Ella sat in the Gryffindor common room later that evening, waiting for Mara to get out of detention. At least she had Lily Evans, who she had given a severe scolding for leaving her in potions for James Potter.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just that he-" began Lily before Ella cut her off.

"Well for your sake you better marry that boy, or else my suffering will be for naught," Ella responded, scribbling down a thesis statement for her potions essay.

"Oh come on Ella I just said yes today and do you honestly think-?" Lily started before being cut off, once again, by Ella shushing her.

"Ssssssssshhhhhhh. Don't question me," Ella whispered, pressing her finger to Lily's lips and getting an annoyed look in return. "Well you could write this essay for me. That could work too."

"No, I think I'm good," said Lily, moving to stand up.

"Fine, I see how this is going to be… Mrs. Potter," Ella smirked, pushing up the sleeves of the knit purple sweater she had one over her tank top of the same color. "I'll totally let you those sapphire earrings that you like." With one final eye roll Lily stood up and walked up towards the girls dormitory just as Mara crawled in through the portrait hole.

"My love!" Ella teased, throwing her arms open as she saw her friend walk in. "How was detention?"

"Three hours of uneventful silence," smirked Mara. Ella raised an eyebrow. "What? That's it, we had to write lines and that was all." Oh yeah there was definitely something else that happened. She'd find out later. It was pretty easy to get Mara to tell secrets, and even easier when the other girls were trying to sleep and they would help in encouraging Mara tell whatever it was that she was hiding.

"Want to help me with this essay?" Ella asked hopefully.

"Let me think about that… no," her dark-eyed friend laughed before darting up the stairs to the girls dormitory like Lily had done a few moments previous.

He must have darted out after Mara opened the door to the dormitory because shortly after Ella's cat, Buttons, came walking calmly down the stairs and jumped up into her lap.

"You don't know how much I wish you had the ability to write," she said told the animal as he curled up in her lap and looked at her essay. Buttons looked up at her and mewed innocently before looking over her shoulder and flattening his ears against his head as he looked behind her.

As if on cue two loud, laughing voices could be heard as the portrait hole swung forward yet again.

"I will never again doubt the power that a tie can have a homicidal weapon," Sirius was complaining.

"Well think on the bright side. He could have… stuck a fork into your jugular. You got lucky!" James laughed. _Hmm_, Ella thought to herself in amusement, stroking her cat. _I'm starting to think this may be what Miss Mara was hiding from me_.

"Hey Sirius!" Ella called suddenly, waving over the tall, dark-haired boy to where she was sitting sideways in one of the armchairs by the fire. Sirius muttered something to James before walking toward her.

"Hey Trengove, what's up?" he asked. "Nice, erm, cat."

"Oh thanks, this is Buttons. He's a Mau," she said, ignoring the fact that Buttons was staring down Sirius.

"Egyptian?"

"No, honey, he's Narnian," she said sarcastically. "Yes, he's a bronze _Egyptian_ Mau."

"What?" Sirius asked blankly.

"I don't even know, Mara decided to go on an adventure to a muggle library this summer and she was reading it and asked her what the point of summer reading was and she was like… okay not the point." Sirius chuckled quietly.

"So what is it?" Sirius asked, running his hand through his hair. He did that a lot, it seemed.

"You blew up my cauldron, you have to help me write this stupid essay," she told him. Sirius groaned in dismay.

"Can't I just buy you a new one?"

"No, I am not financially challenged, I can buy my own, thank you very little, and I already sent out the order. I'll probably have it before Monday," she said indignantly. Oh what, was he offering her pity money? Those two idiots she was forced to call Mother and Father were high up in pureblood society, her father had a high up position working in the Department of Magical Transportation, her mother had been a socialite ever since she married her father, and just about every time Ella went to her family's Gringotts vault and she saw sprawling hills of gold that went almost as far as the eye could see she felt like just shoveling as much of it as possible into her pockets and bag and then just throwing it out into the streets. Ella Trengove did _not_ need pity money.

During her angry, mental rant Ella managed to keep up her cheery smile. "No, I really need you to help you me. Please?" she begged, looking at him with big green Bambi eyes.

"I thought you were good at Potions," he protested.

"Yeah but I'm awful with theory. Please?" she asked again, still keeping up the innocent expression with wide doe eyes.

"Well so am I."

"Yeah but together we could probably get at least an _acceptable_. Pleeeeeeaaaaaaaase?" Finally he sighed in defeat. "Yay teamwork! Here I'll even be nice and get you a quill and parchment. I'll be right back." Setting Buttons onto the floor she set up towards the stairs that two of her friends had gone up previously.

"Whatchya doin'?" Mara asked as Ella came in and started digging around in her school bag before pulling out a hot pink quill and regular parchment.

"Winning," said Ella, fixing her hair in the mirror and adjusting her sweater and grey shorts.

"Winning at what?" Lily asked, looking over a book she was reading.

"Look guys, you know me right? If someone wants to play a game, I'll play back. And I play to win. He's never going to know what hit him," said Ella, leaning against the dresser. "I was raised by Slytherins, remember? This can't be completely unexpected." Lily didn't seem to have any idea what it was going on but Mara was shaking her head and grinning.

"Miss Ella, you are evil," she laughed.

"And you love me for it anyways," Ella crooned.

"Yes I do," Mara admitted.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on!" Lily shouted in exasperation.

"I'll do it," huffed Mara. Waving to her friends, Ella set down the stairs again.

She'd heard about what it felt like for guys to get stuck in the friendzone, about how it was a sad lonely place filled with guy advice and shopping. Well it was time for a little experiment to see about how a guy who had never not gotten something that he wanted would react to such a harsh environment.


	8. The quickest route to friendship

When Ella came back down the stairs she found that Buttons had sat down next to Sirius and they were currently having a stare down. It was actually pretty funny but she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Uh, why do you look like you want to butcher my cat?" Ella asked in confusion.

"Because he's a minion of the anti-god," Sirius grumbled, narrowing his eyes at Buttons a bit more before Ella took the cat out of his line of sight.

"Is that true?" she asked the cat sternly, only to get a kitten like meow in response. Oh yeah, minion of the anti-god alright. Besides, the only person Buttons ever hissed at was her mother… and her father, and her sister Lena, and her brother Seth… and her cousins Marina, Juliette, Timmy, Julianne, Beverly, Simon, Royce, Emmett, Grace, and Stella. As well as her grandma Marilyn and sometimes just random house guests but that was it! Come on, she got him as a kitten off the streets when she was 10; you couldn't expect him to be perfect!

It wasn't until her cat started pawing at it did Ella realize that she still had the quill and parchment in her hands.

"Oh, I nearly forgot. Here," she told Sirius, handing him the items. He looked at the quill and all its glorious pinkness sadly.

"How come I have to use this pink one?" he complained. Ella gave him a dumb look as she sat back in the chair she had been sitting in before.

"Are you really complaining about the color? No one can tell by looking at a paper that the feather was pink and I think you'll live long enough to write a decent sized report," she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"So I've just got to ask," said Sirius, finally caving as he dipped the gaudy quill into an ink well. "Why do you seem to care about this class so much?"

"Because it's one of the few I'm actually good at, along with Defense Against the Dark Arts," Ella sighed, rolling her eyes. "I'm okay with Charms and Transfiguration, I'm pretty average with Herbology, and I never understood Astronomy or History of Magic. Potions class has just kind of been my thing since first year and I just want to prove that I'm not totally useless. So what's your excuse for _not_ caring?" That question seemed to catch him off guard and he had to think about it.

"Um… I reckon it's because I was expected to be the best so I just figured that I would disappoint them all and once that mission was a success it was more of a habit," Sirius shrugged.

Well lucky him, at least people used to expect things out of him. What did they think Ella was supposed to do? Go to Hogwarts, just be a popular and well liked little Slytherin, graduate without having made any real accomplishments that would matter later in life, go home and let them make a lovely little pureblood marriage, become one of those little housewives who simply lived to entertain high society guests, and have a couple of kids who she would train by the same standards. It was like they planned out her entire life for her to amount to absolutely nothing.

But so far Ella wasn't going down so easily. She'd gone to Hogwarts, was sorted into _Gryffindor_, sure she was pretty well liked but she had her fair share of rivals and people there was a mutual dislike toward. She hadn't graduated yet but she got nearly twice as many OWLs as Lena and got fairly good grades (which always surprised those who didn't know her well) and that already put her past her parents expectations. She had a boyfriend so they couldn't really shove her into marriage right away. Although the only thing that did concern her was how fond of Fletcher her parents and siblings were, that always seemed to be a cause for alarm in Ella's mind. They didn't even mind that he was a half blood and didn't have a lot of money, they just liked his "ambition" and Lena said he was cute which didn't sit well with Ella either.

"Alright, now I have a question for you," said Sirius, his voice bringing her out of her thoughts. Ella looked down at her paper, surprised to see that she had already written two paragraphs on the assigned topic.

"And that would be…?" she asked, tugging at the sleeves of her sweater.

"How long have you been dating that Breckenridge bloke?" he asked.

"Me and Fletcher. Well let's see…May 13, today's the nineteenth… a little more than four months."

"Four months… so what, do you love him?" Sirius asked, but she got the impression that he didn't really care either way.

"Not that it's any of your business but as a matter of fact, yes I do," she said informatively.

"Nice double standards you got there," Ella heard Sirius mutter under his breath.

"Uh, _excuse moi_? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing, just the fact that it's perfectly okay for you to grill me with personal questions but I can't ask you one," Sirius said conversationally, looking at his potions essay and writing something down. Ella raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well you could have just not answered at all or told me to shut up if you think it's such a big deal," she said pleasantly after looking him over for a moment.

"Well it really wasn't that much of a big deal for me, I just think it's a little bit hypocritical, that's all," he shrugged. Ella felt her eye twitch slightly before reaching out to grab her cat and pursing her lips.

"Well you know," she said in a sugary sweet tone, "maybe if you weren't constantly chasing after whatever random bimbo catches your eye and maybe focused on school once in a while then you wouldn't have messed up the entire potion. And then maybe I wouldn't have had to ask you for just about every insignificant detail of your life out of sheer boredom. Then we wouldn't even be in this situation and probably not even talking, which I liked quite a bit more."

"Don't need to blame this all on me," Sirius said indignantly. "And you don't even know me, I-"

"Your middle name is Orion after your father, your favorite color is blue, your birthday is October 23, your first kiss was Bella Guérin in second year which began your fabulous career as a complete _MAN-WHORE_, you have mommy and daddy issues, and you are an ignorant prat! Shall I continue?" Ella listed, her voice rising in volume. Sirius blinked a few times.

"Did I even tell you half of that stuff because I can't even remember you asking me."

"Oh and you also have the attention span of a squirrel! And you know what; I'm just good with figuring people out which is why I can tell that you are some sort of gift to all women everywhere from the gods!" People were starting to stare now.

"So you're saying I'm not?" he joked, pretending as if this was shocking news. Which of course didn't help Ella's temper at all.

"Oh screw you!" she said angrily, throwing her things together in a pile.

"Come on Trengove, you know you want to," he said wickedly. Giving him an unamused smile Ella reached out for her jar of ink, unscrewed the top, and proceeded to dump it over his ever so perfect hair. Of course it didn't show up very well considering that his hair was already black but she was pretty sure that her point was made as she slammed the empty bottle on the table, scooped up her book and half written essay and stomped towards the stairs.

"Buttons, come here!" she yelled at her cat who hissed at Sirius and then dashed to catch up with her.

"Why did I hear yelling?" Mara asked suspiciously from where she and Lily were both sitting on Mara's bed.

"I got mad," shrugged Ella, tossing her things onto her own bed.

"So how is the whole friend zoning thing working out for you?" inquired Lily.

"Oh I dumped ink all over his head. Pity, it was a brand new and good quality, what a shame I had to waste it all on such a loser," Ella sighed. Lily looked quite taken aback by the response but from the look on Mara's face you would have thought Christmas was three months early.

"Um, Ella I don't think that's the best way to-" Lily began hesitantly.

"Yay friendship!" interjected Mara gleefully. "If that isn't the quickest route to creating strong ever-lasting friendships then my middle name isn't Dianne."

"But your middle name _isn't _Dianne. It's Elise," Lily said in confusion.

"That's the point, honey."

"Oh. I see now." Mara started a slow clap for Lily and her revelation while Ella shook her head at her friends. Nice to know she had people who cared so very much about what could have happened to make her so mad that she had dumped a whole bottle of ink on someone's head. But oh well, when _they_ acted like they had Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny, it was endearing. Not infuriating like with certain arrogant prats. Oh Godric... maybe she was a hypocrite!


	9. The Hunter

Sirius couldn't recall a time when he had ever been more confused. Ever. First of all there was the fact that he had no idea why he was saying the things he was. Every time he spoke he would have a little voice in his head start screaming _Why did you say that?!_, probably that conscience thing that he had heard people talk about. One part of him wanted to say that he wasn't even used to having to talk to a girl for so long, usually by this point they would be somewhere more secluded with tongues would be in the other person's mouth. Not much talking required there. But then the other part of him was saying that was stupid: he knew how to talk to girls, he hadn't snogged as many girls as he had in the past year just because of his looks. Ella wasn't the first girl to be wary of him which is when sweet words and charm came in.

So why, for the love of all that was good and pure in this forsaken universe, was Sirius suddenly clueless? He knew better than to call someone he barely knew a hypocrite, especially not a girl he was trying to hit on. And with most people he wouldn't have answered the question about why he didn't try in class. Really the only ones that knew that little tidbit of information were the other three Marauders and probably his brother, the latter of the two he didn't particularly care about though. Or at least that's what he told himself. But now here he was treating Ella Trengove almost as if she was one of the guys. And it wasn't like she reminded him of one, her posture was too good, she dressed extremely girly, her voice and the way she spoke were undoubtedly feminine, and he didn't see James, Remus, or Peter having that nice of a rack. Mrah, maybe he was just still hungry… or the ink was seeping through his skull into his brains or something.

Oh yeah huh… there was ink all over his head. Sirius had been sitting there in such complete shock that he had actually forgotten about the entire ink well that had been dumped all over him and it wasn't until some dripped onto the tip of his nose was he reminded of it.

"_Tergeo_," he muttered, pointing his wand at himself so that all the ink was cleared off. Okay, so there were now four sides of Trengove, ditzy, nerdy, depressed, and in need of anger management classes. Got it. Although he still wasn't quite sure how she knew all those things about him, had she asked him during class when he just wasn't paying attention? Was his memory really that bad? Oh well, no point sitting around in the common room, where people were looking at him and whispering and laughing. Besides, James and Peter were in the dormitory and Remus was in the library. Well, two out of three wasn't bad.

"I heard shouting, what was going on?" James asked suspiciously from his spot on the floor where he sat polishing his broom.

"Bitch got mad at me and dumped ink all over on me," Sirius shrugged, flopping down on his bed. Peter gasped as though it completely shocked him that someone would do something so terrible to someone as wonderful as Sirius (which was why Sirius liked Peter so much), but James however started laughing. What?

"Remind me to congratulate her later," Sirius's best mate gasped, after his fit of guffaws.

"Whose side are you on?" Sirius asked, offended.

"Yours mate but just… I can't be the only one who finds this situation somewhat ironic, right? I mean come on, I spend basically all of my time in Hogwarts trying to get Lily Evans to go out with me, and you guys just told me I should give up. Meanwhile Sirius gets every girl he's ever wanted. And so finally on the day Lily says she'll go out with me, Sirius gets his first rejection," explained James, laughter still in his voice.

"I get it!" said Peter happily. Well somebody give the boy a medal.

"Oh but Prongs, it's not over yet," Sirius informed him. "Really, I was getting kind of bored by the lack of a challenge there was with everyone else. The chase is half the fun of it! You think I'm just going to let this get to me?" To translate it was something more like: _I'm in denial over what just happened and I'm not going to let this drop_.

"Oh yeah, go get 'er Padfoot. Just remember, you're a hunter," James teased, examining his broom stick one last time to see if there was a spot on the surface he hadn't polished.

Rolling his eyes at his best friend Sirius remembered that he had left the obnoxious pink pen in the common room. Perfect, that was as good of an excuse as any to try and talk to Ella again. After telling the other two boys that he would be right back Sirius dashed down the stairs and into the common room to see Mooney talking to Mara the Homicidal Maniac.

"Erm, yeah I guess so," Remus was saying, shrugging as he did so.

"Me _too_!" Mara said brightly, acting like whatever it was it was some big deal. "So like we're kind of on the same side then, aren't we?"

"There are sides? I mean I think he-"

"Oh hi Sirius!" said Mara brightly, noticing him as he the dark-haired boy started walking toward them.

"Hey Pad-" Remus started before being interrupted yet again when Mara touched his arm.

"We'll finish this conversation later," she told him, before walking off. "I told you I'm _everywhere_," Cascreasa hissed as soon as she passed by Sirius. He whipped his head around to look at her after hearing those words but all she did was start laughing and skip towards the stairs. Sirius really didn't like Mara's laugh, it seemed like it belonged to that of some psychotic little girl as she killed her parents or something. If he wasn't too proud to say so, Sirius might have admitted that it scared him a bit.

"She's insane," Sirius said, confident in his words as he stood next to Remus. Mooney shrugged.

"Well I thought she was pretty nice and cute too but-"

"NO!" said Sirius in horror. "No such things will be thought or said in my presence. Just… no. Anyways, what was she trying to talk to you about?"

"Do you promise you won't interrupt me?" the werewolf asked in irritation. "She just wanted to talk about you and Ella. There was opening small talk about the assignment for Charms class but that was it." Sirius frowned slightly.

"I'm starting to think that as long as she's around acting as a body guard I'm never going to be able to get to Trengove," he said thoughtfully.

"I don't know what to tell you mate," said Remus genuinely. Frowning again Sirius's grey eyes scanned the room before landing on Remus.

"What?" the werewolf asked defensively.

"My brain just came up with a idea," said Sirius proudly before clasping Remus's shoulder. "You're time has come my friend."

"I really don't like where this is going. At all."

"That's too bad. Come, we have plans to make."

"Oooh, why me?"


	10. Distractions

"This is completely immoral," Remus told Sirius the next morning as they sat by the fire in the common room the next day. "And why does it have to be _me_?"

"Because, Mooney," Sirius sighed. "James now has Evans and she doesn't really seem to like him very much and Peter is… unattractive. And come on think about it! I get a girl, you get a girl, Cascreasa doesn't have to die alone, and Trengove doesn't have to spend her whole seventh year with some slimy Slytherin. It's a win win win win situation!"

"And what about Breckenridge?" Remus asked, glaring.

"He'll get over it, and something tells me he doesn't care about her all that deeply," sighed Sirius, starting to get exasperated.

"Oh and you do?" Remus asked, crossing his arms.

"Just help me out this one time, okay? Or else I'll tell your mother about what you were actually doing last Christmas when you told her you were sick." The two friends had a bit of a stare down before the werewolf finally sighed in defeat.

Not giving his friend any time to respond Sirius yanked at Remus's arm upon seeing the two girls coming down the stairs. Sighing heavily the lighter haired boy stood up and started talking to Mara. It looked like Ella was going to wait for her to finish talking but the taller girl seemed to be telling her to go one ahead.

Sirius waited until Remus was deep in conversation with Mara before heading out the portrait hole after Ella. She had a head start but it hadn't been that difficult to find her since she was down the whole, spinning around in a circle with her eyes covered.

"Care to explain what is that you are doing?" he asked, bringing his face a bit too close to hers. Ella yelped, uncovered her eyes, and thump Sirius on the shoulder.

"It's called personal space, creep," she grumbled but it sounded like she was trying to hold back laughter. Maybe Trengove wasn't much of a grudge holder. "And to be quite honest, I don't even really know what I'm doing. I just go to wander the hallways at random."

"Oh _really_?" Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mmhm, you try it!" she said brightly.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," said Sirius adamantly.

"Do it."

"No."

"Please?" Damn, how did Ella make that face? Her eyes got all big and shiny and her pouting lips would start to quiver. People tried to make that look all the time, when Prongs had done it Sirius had busted up laughing. But with Ella it was like the picture of innocence.

"No?" said Sirius a little less certainly. Sighing and clearly annoyed that her doe eyes thing hadn't worked, Ella gave Sirius a series of small shoves so that he was spinning slowly in a circle.

"Good!" laughed Ella once Sirius continued to walk in the circle without her help. "Now close your eyes. Don't question it!" Figuring there wasn't much use in arguing Sirius did as he was told. It was pathetic spinning but hey, he was doing it. "Now keep doing that for a bit longer." If Sirius had been paying attention to anything other than the fact of how stupid he felt, he would have easily heard the sound of footsteps running in the opposite direction.

"How much longer do I have to do this?" Sirius complained. Silence. "Trengove?" he asked, opening his eyes to find nobody anywhere in sight. What. Just. Happened. _Oh you totally got punked_, said that annoying little voice of reason in his head. Shut up voice of reason, no one likes you.

For a moment Sirius just stood there, not quite sure where to go. He could probably go and find her but that would seem desperate. Being in it for the chase did not literally mean running after her every time she walked away from him. Besides, she was probably with her loser boyfriend by now and as amusing as it would be to just ruin whatever moment they were having, Sirius was just feeling lazy right now. Oh well, he'd find someone to occupy his time. But no sooner had he thought this that he felt a sharp poke to his back.

_Not what I wanted!_, Sirius thought exasperatedly to whatever higher being that was out there and willing to listen. But could you blame him? Right there in front of him was an irritated Mara Cascreasa who was dragging Remus along by his left ear.

"Really? _This_ was the best you could come up with?" Mara asked in disgust, shaking his blonde friend's head slightly to emphasize what she was talking about. "Well jeez, at least before I had to give you credit for being clever. But if this is your best plan I will have to take that back," sighed Mara, pushing Remus toward Sirius.

"I'm sure that if I actually cared about your opinions I would have been glad to know that," Sirius told her sarcastically.

"Cute," said Mara, narrowing her eyes and smirking humorlessly before turning to Remus. "You really need to work on your acting skills. No one will ever trust you with secrets if you're that bad of a liar." Sirius was having a hard time not laughing as she walked away. The Marauders probably held the biggest secrets in the school, far outweighing the petty gossip that everyone else had. Yeah, who cared that Susie and Billy were dating in secret when one of your best friends was a werewolf and you and your other two friends had become Anamagi? Oh this girl had no idea.

"One job, Mooney. You had one job," Sirius sighed in exasperation once Mara was out of sight.

"I'm sorry but she has to know Legilimency or something!" Remus protested. "I barely said hi before she said 'what are you trying to distract me from'. And anyways, from the looks of things you didn't even need to keep Cascreasa occupied when you were doing so badly with Trengove." Sirius gave him a death glare that made the werewolf draw away slightly.

"Just leave."

"Okay," huffed Remus, slumping away.

Perhaps Sirius would have felt bad for sending his friend off if only he hadn't been distracted by a pretty blonde Ravenclaw girl.

"Hey," said Sirius, falling into step with this other girl. "It's, uh, Lynette right? Aspen?"

"Lynette _Espenson_," the blonde giggled. "And you're Sirius Black." Sirius grinned toothily at her. Any doubts in his mind about his ability to get girls vanished. There was nothing wrong with _him_, Trengove was just playing hard to get and that's what made it fun and he'd get back to that game… in maybe 15 minutes or so when he was done with Espenson.


	11. It's not stalking, it's research

It was truly a sad day when one had to agree with Severus "Grease Ball" Snape on, well, anything. But now Mara had to say that he was right: the Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were all idiots. True Peter hadn't even been around at the time but she was going to drag into this. Yech, she must have been on some sort of drug during that period in fifth year when she had been completely obsessed with crushing on Potter. She would forever look back at that as a dark spot in her life.

But really, that Sirius Black kid was going to be a major problem. On a normal occasion she couldn't care less about what he did in his personal life, it wasn't her problem. But considering that this was Ella, and automatically made it Mara's problem. She didn't even like her best friend's boyfriend as it was and Black wasn't too much of a difference in her mind. And like she had told him the previous night in detention, any wrong moves from his side would result in a fatality. And really, Mara was way too young to go to Azkaban.

But really, if he was resorting to sending Remus Lupin to distract her that definitely meant that he wanted Mara out of the way so he could get to Ella easier. Good luck with that of course since Ella was still fuming when she woke up earlier that morning, and considering that Ella was normally a zombie who showed no signs of emotion in the morning… that wasn't a good thing. But if the Sirius problem wasn't resolved soon she was going to be stuck with crying Ella. And crying Ella was the most heartbreakingly sad thing ever. But it wasn't until she passed by a rather disheveled looking Lynette Espenson did the wheels started turning in her head.

"What were you _doing_?" Mara asked, stopping the blonde girl who she had always liked well enough and helping her fix her ruffled up shirt and crooked tie.

"No one- I mean nothing!" giggled Lynette, fixing her own hair. "Nothing, I just walked outside in the, er, wind." Mmhm, yeah, _wind_. The weather was perfect right now and there was no wind to speak of.

"So was he any good?" Mara asked.

"Oh yeah, bu- damn." Mara laughed triumphantly before turning on heel and marching back in the direction of Gryffindor tower. Time to do some research….

* * *

Mara found herself sitting on the floor of the Gryffindor girl's dormitory, glaring at her trunk which refused to open. Words could not express the amount of hatred that she felt toward that blasted thing. She rued the day that she had bought that accursed storage. Every time she wanted to get something out of it a bloody battle occurred. Last night she'd broken two nails trying to get her pajamas out. That was why she normally kept it prop open, but _somebody_ had closed it.

"Let's do this," Mara said, narrowing her eyes again before attempting to pry open the lid. Half the time she expected it to start laughing at her and making fun of her. It definitely had the evil potential.

Ten minutes later Mara had broken three more fingernails, chipped away a bit of the paint, her hands were red, and while she had chipped away a bit of the paint the stupid thing had not even opened yet and _no_ it was _not_ locked, she tried that already.

"Forget you, I have magic!" Mara finally yelled in frustration, pulling her wand from her pocket and pointing it threateningly at the trunk. "Whatchya gonna do now, punk?" In the next few seconds there was a smell of burning wood and Mara's gleeful laugh as she pushed some pieces of the trunk out of the way. She really ought to have thought of that first.

* * *

Mara went over her things one last time. Trench coat? Check. Binoculars? Check, even though she still wasn't sure about when she had come into possession of those. Bedazzled camera? Check! Sandwich? Not yet. Just one last thing was needed. Standing in front of the mirror Mara slowly placed her hat on her head before gasping deeply.

"Holy Batman!" she squealed, just as Lily came in. Yes, Mara was a pureblood but unlike Ella's parents Mr. and Mrs. Cascreasa (while they had been alive anyways) had always encouraged Mara and her brother's to go out in the muggle world. Of course her brothers Ross and Daniel hadn't gotten much out of it, except the fact that Ross's wife was a muggle, but Mara had way too much fun diving into muggle culture. One word: Star Wars.

"What about Batman?" Lily asked in confusion.

"I look _awesome_ in a fedora!" Mara said, tilting the hat and looking at herself in the mirror still. Lily was looking at the wreckage that used to be Mara's trunk. "Oh yeah, _reparo_! Now if you'll excuse me, my dear Evans, I have to go procure a sandwich and follow around a questionable target. Good day to you, madam." And with a swish of her classy black trench coat, Mara was out the door and leaving behind a very confused Lily. Huh, so maybe that was why Snape always made such a big show of walking around corners, swishing was fun.

* * *

Mmm, turkey. Mara was so much happier now. But of course acquiring a sandwich did not make her work done, she hadn't even started. Walking around a corner she saw someone coming and did a quick tuck and roll to get out of the way. That was so cool! Too bad nobody saw it because the person had just turned another corner and blocked her from view. Oh well, it wasn't the Target, just Mulciber. Disappointment. She didn't like Mulciber either, he dumped her and turned out to be genuinely screwed up. Then again, half of the male population of school had dated and dumped Mara so that wasn't much of an accomplishment. Was this some sort of curse or something? That she couldn't hold out a boyfriend? Out of all the guys she had dated she only broke up with five of them, the rest of them had dumped her. Even nice guys. Really, it was just getting to the point where Mara was completely unaffected by a breakup.

Mara looked around the area again through her binoculars, lowered them slightly to take a huge bite of her sandwich that made her feel like the Cookie Monster, and then continued to look around. Nope, he didn't seem to be around here. Scuttling around the hallways Mara did another tuck and roll, just for the heck of it, and managed to keep her sandwich whole and protect her camera and binoculars. Yeah… having two big brothers only ever did two things for her and that was a) become immune to the pain of being tripped down the stairs and knocked down and b) keep a sandwich whole. Two useful things to know for stalking research purposes. Of course, she'd rather not have spent her entire childhood being knocked around by her brothers who was 14 and 12 years older than her but she got over without any serious brain damage. Wait… where was she? Oh yeah, crouching in a corner, trying to hunt down Sirius Black. …What? She was just absent minded, that was all, not stupid!

Taking another big bite of turkey sandwich Mara was looking through her binoculars again when she heard a cough from behind her. Turning her head around slowly she saw the towering figure of the Transfiguration professor.

"Ooh hi profsher-" the dark haired girl started to say before realizing that her mouth was still half full. Taking a moment to swallow and clean her teeth quickly with her tongue she turned back to the Gryffindor Head of House with a sunny smile. "Hi Professor McGonagall! What brings you here on this fabulous Saturday?"

"Miss Cascreasa, what are you doing?" McGonagall asked, completely ignoring Mara's attempt to have a nice, pleasant conversation. Well then.

"Oh!" said Mara quickly, in a breezy, slightly higher pitched voice than normal. "Just playing hide-and-go-seek with some friends. Trouble is they are _really_ good, so _I'm_ hiding! They'll never expect it."

"Don't you think," the teacher said stiffly, "That it is a bit inappropriate at your age to be playing a children's game?" Mara gasped in sharply for a rather long period of time and clutched her heart with her turkey sandwich free hand.

"_Never_ Professor!" she said, still in that slightly high pitched voice but sounding deeply offended nonetheless. "And I'll have you know, that hide-and-seek is not just a children's game. It teaches stealth, coordination… dexterity… _camouflage_… and um… oh look there's Lupin!" Noticing the sickly boy coming down the hallway Mara stood up quickly, dashed down the hall, and shoved him on the shoulder as she continued to run. "Tag, you're it!" she called before darting the rest of the way down the hall, slipping slightly as she went to turn the corner but still managing to remain unscathed.

"I have no idea Professor," she heard Lupin tell the McGonagall while she was still in ear shot. "None."

Okay, maybe that didn't go as planned. Mara took another bite of sandwich as she gathered her bearings. It took her a moment to realize that Ella and Fletcher a floor below her.

"Hey!" Mara called down to them. "If McGonagall asks, we were playing hide and seek. Got it?"

"Got it!" Ella called cheerily. "You look awesome in the hat." _Tell me something I don't know_, Mara thought, adjusting its position slightly before drawing her coat closer to her body and setting off down the hallway. She was going to find that boy if it killed her.

* * *

**Author's note: Based on a true story. I have weird friends. Anyways, this chapter doesn't have much purpose; it's just a bit of nonsense that I had fun writing and had actually been planning out for a while. We all need that quirky best friend, I guess, right?**


	12. Fletcher

If only the rest of the world could be as entertaining as Ella's best friend. Of course, Ella couldn't help but wonder why it was that Mara wanted her to say that they had been playing hide and seek, but it was funny all the same. When Ella had ditched Sirius in the hallway she had ran away as fast as possible, only to slam right into Fletcher. Good, that was who she wanted to see anyway.

"Hey," she said, standing on her tiptoes in an attempt to reach his lips in order to kiss him. Fletcher was six feet tall, making him stand quite a bit taller than Ella's mere five feet and two and ½ inches that she often rounded up to feel less inferior. But nine times out of ten, rather than stoop down any lower Fletcher would just prefer to watch in amusement as his girlfriend would struggle to reach him.

"You know you could be a little more considerate of my height," she sighed, finally managing to plant him a kiss.

"Nah," shrugged Fletcher, laughing slightly. "Besides, don't blame me blame genetics."

"I would if I could, the rest of my family is super tall, remember?" she pouted.

"Oh yeah… your father scares me a bit. Where does he work again?"

"Head of the Department of Magical Transportation. And you shouldn't be scared of him, he loves you," Ella grumbled bitterly. "And my mother thinks you're an absolutely charming young man, Seth says you remind him of him, and Lena thinks you're super sexy. No need to worry about the Amazons not liking you." It was a pathetic moment when your parents liked your boyfriend more than you.

"Was that really what she said?" Fletcher snorted.

"No, it was something more along the lines of 'Oh Merlin your boyfriend is gorgeous.' And then I said 'Yeah I know, that's why he's my boyfriend and not yours.' And then she said 'Keep an eye on that one, someone might steal him. And her name might rhyme with Dina.' And then some other things here and there. This is horrible for your ego isn't it?"

"No, I'd say it's great for my ego," he said, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt. "Why would it be bad?"

"Because when your head can't fill any more with hot gas it'll just burst and kill all of us in the explosion." She gave his shoulder a playful shove.

"Well if you're going to be that way I won't tell you what my father said about you," Fletcher said indignantly.

Ella rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure what she'd done to make Mr. Breckenridge dislike her so much. She'd never said one even mildly bad word in his presence, she acted like a perfect young lady, and her whole charming façade always worked on everybody else. And if they were going in terms of just family and money then if anything Ella was way out of Fletcher's league. Fletcher was a half blood and, according to her vast knowledge of gossip, his mother was just some muggle girl from Mississippi that had practically run away screaming back to America once she found out her baby and husband were magic. So Fletcher grew up in some dingy flat in London with his dad, Mason. And even before that little scandal the Breckenridge family wasn't exactly at the height of wealth and society.

With the Trengoves they had stated off as bankers who knew how long ago. People said that that before the Gringotts goblins there was just a few Trengoves. As time went on, the wealth build up for the family and they may or may not have bought their way into politics. They'd even gotten in a few Ministers of Magic from the family, which made more accusations of simony and nepotism. The past few generations they had managed to boost their wealth, power, and high standing in pureblood society even more. But of course Ella had never fit in with any of them. She wasn't ambitious or greedy, she didn't care about politics much, she was horrible at mathematics, and she didn't want people who got in her way of success to just disappear off the face of the Earth. Fletcher was ambitious though, maybe that's why they liked him. But Ella had never given his father a reason to dislike her and yet from the first time Fletcher had taken her home to meet his dad, Mr. Breckenridge had openly disliked her. But as baffling as that was, Ella refused to let it get to her.

Noticing Fletcher's brown eyes following something behind her, Ella twisted her neck around but didn't see anything.

"What're you looking at?" she asked.

"Nothing there was just a fly," he shrugged.

"Seriously, what is it?" she pouted, crossing her arms. Ella hated not knowing things. Fletcher chuckled and leaned his right elbow and forearm against the wall behind her and placed his left on her waist.

"Aw c'mon Ellie, do you really not trust me?" he laughed. Ella scowled at the horrible nickname.

"My name's Ella. Not _Ellie_. I am not a pachyderm. I am not what almost every single child ever decides to name some sort of stuffed elephant." Once again she seemed to greatly amuse him.

"Sorry," he said, bringing his face closer. "Want me to make it up?"

And that of course was when Mara had shown up in her totally amazing trench coat and fedora. Seriously, Mara rocked the fedora. However, Ella wasn't so taken by it that she failed to notice the scowl on Fletcher's face when she turned her attention back toward him.

"What?" she asked.

"Such a freak," Fletcher huffed, rolling his eyes at Mara's retreating figure.

"Aw, well if you have a problem with it then I'll go and tell her right now that I'm breaking up with you." Fletcher blinked uncomprehendingly. "If you have a problem with my best friend you're just going to have to get the hell over it," Ella explained slowly.

"Still I've never understood how you were friends with her," he sighed. "She's holding you back and she's just so weird and you're so…."

"I'm so _what_?" Ella heatedly, gritting her teeth.

"I don't know, normal I suppose."

"Alright, here's a bit of a news flash for you, baby," she told him slowly. "I've been friends with Mara since I was five years old. She was my first and only friend for a very long time. Now, unlike Slytherins, I don't just dump my friends once they've outlived their purpose or just because I think they're useless or something. No, I actually like to keep people around just for the sake of having friends and being _happy_. Without that girl I'd be sitting in a corner wearing all black, cutting myself, and crying. Okay?

"Second of all, maybe you don't know me because I am weird as hell. This summer Mara and I ran around our hometown in a shopping cart, eating vanilla pudding in a mayonnaise jar, and asking the muggles what year it was. Whenever they said 1977 we'd start cheering and then roll away in our shopping cart. I was grounded for two weeks but guess what? Worth it. I played poker with a teddy bear and I lost because he was hiding cards. My pregnant sister-in-law was just sitting in the kitchen, talking to my mother and just casually eating a jar of pickles so I threw it out the window and said that I don't allow cucumbers dipped n evil anywhere within a ten foot radius of me. I'm weird, I know it, and I'm proud, okay?"

Scowling again Fletcher pulled away from where he had been previously standing quite close. "I'm going back to my common room," he said shortly, turning his back on her.

"Fine!" Ella yelled after him. "I'm just going to go hang out with my two friends: Mara Cascreasa the Freak and Lily Evans the muggle born. Or better yet, maybe I'll go hang out with Sirius Black! That sounds more fun anyways…." At her last words Fletcher turned around slowly.

"Sirius Black?" her boyfriend asked.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about how much fun I had," she said in bright and happy tone.

"No," Fletcher said angrily. "No, you're not allowed to hang out with him. I won't let you."

"Fine," Ella sighed, defeated. "If it bugs you that much I'll just go play hide and seek with Mara. Happy?"

"Yes," Fletcher nodded, turning his back to her again. Doing the same Ella grinned to herself. He was so easy to trick. He totally thought she was just an ditzy, obedient little girlfriend. Now where was Sirius?


End file.
